ehm
/əm/
"ehm" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ehm” is uncommon English (frequency #64,347 among 2,246 “E” headwords), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #64,347
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - um, er expressing hesitation
Corpus desk
Index EN-ehm · ehm · English
ehm · rank #64,347 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #64,347
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH ECP
Nearest frequency peer: ECP (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “ehm”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- echolocation
echolocation
35,657 corpus weight
- eclecticism
eclecticism
35,656 corpus weight
- ECP
ECP
35,655 corpus weight
- ehm
ehm
35,654 corpus weight
- Elihu
Elihu
35,653 corpus weight
- Elroy
Elroy
35,652 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “ehm” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ehm |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /əm/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #64,347 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ehm” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ehm is uncommon English at frequency #64,347 among 2,246 “E” headwords, classed as aninterjection, transcribed /əm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "um, er expressing hesitation".
No generated misspelling entries exist for ehm in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is ehm, spelled E-H-M.
Definition
- 1um, er expressing hesitation
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ehm appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…]ehm but if you’re happy then that’s what it comes up to at the end of the day if you’re happy doing what you are. ehm (..) if you’re not then it’s up to you to change it ehm I don’t think there’s a – (.) an age thing it’s ehm a personal one.
01 C: ehm hiya / 02 S: hi how can I help / 03 C: ((laughing)) ehm well I’ve just been informed I can’t get on (.) my plane[…]
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ehm", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).